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The statistics pages describe what the balls did. These pages cover the part that actually decides what a jackpot is worth — the discount, the tax bill, the claiming rules, and the mathematics of what frequency data can and cannot tell you.

Written and researched by David Choi · every figure sourced · last reviewed September 4, 2026

Most lottery coverage stops at the headline number. A "$1.04 billion jackpot" is a real figure in the sense that somebody could eventually receive that much, spread across 29 years. It is not what any winner takes home, and the gap between the two is larger than most people expect — roughly 73 cents of every headline dollar disappears before the money reaches a bank account.

These guides work through where it goes, using the published rules and the actual arithmetic. Everything is sourced to the IRS, state revenue departments, state statutes and the official lottery sites, and cited at the foot of each page. None of it is advice.

Money and taxes

Lump sum vs annuity: what a $1.04 billion jackpot actually pays The 43% cash discount, why 24% withholding is not the tax bill, and the reason the annuity is best understood as a tax-deferred Treasury bond yielding about 5%. Lottery taxes by state: the 2026 map Nine states take nothing. New York City takes 14.8%. California exempts its own lottery but taxes other states'. And the state that most people wrongly believe is exempt.

Claiming

Can you claim a lottery prize anonymously? State by state, 2026 Eleven states allow it outright, a dozen more above a threshold, and several — including Arkansas and Florida — only delay disclosure rather than prevent it. Plus what a trust does and does not do.

The mathematics

Why hot and cold numbers do not work — shown with this site's own data The spread in every frequency table on this site is exactly what pure chance produces. Here is the calculation, including why Mega Millions data since April 2025 is far too thin to mean anything.

How these are written

Primary sources only for anything factual — IRS publications and revenue procedures, state revenue departments, state statutes, powerball.com and megamillions.com. News sources are used only for events, and are named.
Arithmetic is shown, not asserted. Where a number is our own calculation on published inputs, the page says so and gives the inputs.
Everything is dated. Tax rates and anonymity statutes change constantly — four states changed their lottery anonymity rules in 2025 and 2026 alone. Each guide carries a review date and ties figures to a stated tax year or effective date.
Corrections are public. Found an error? Tell us. Confirmed errors get a dated correction note on the page, not a silent edit.

More guides in progress: the first 90 days after a win, estate and gift consequences of sharing a prize, group play and office pools, and how jackpot fatigue changed both games' matrices.